Fog obscures the clubhouse on the main track as horses go out for their morning exercise at the Saratoga Race Course early Friday morning Aug. 1, 2014 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein photos
(SKIP DICKSTEIN)

Ever since the Saratoga meet opened two weeks ago, the talk has been this: Palace Malice is the best horse in training in the country. You have heard it from many people, but mostly you have heard it from the staff and management of Todd Pletcher's stable, the most powerful outfit in the country.

Of course, Palace Malice is trained by Pletcher, the owner of six Eclipse Awards as the nation's leading trainer.

"He is on a roll, that's for sure," Pletcher said of Palace Malice, who has won all four of his starts this year. "He has built up a lot of momentum and has taken charge of the handicap division. He's the front-runner for Horse of the Year if he continues to do what he has been doing."

When asked if Palace Malice is a great horse, Pletcher didn't hedge for too long.

"He is working his way towards that," he said. "He has to continue to win, though."

Palace Malice is the headliner in Saturday's 87th running of the $1.5 million Whitney Handicap, the richest race of the Saratoga season. Eight other horses will enter the starting gate with Palace Malice and six of the runners in the 11/8-mile race have earned more than a million dollars.

Palace Malice, because he has won all of his starts this year, and because he hasn't had a speed figure under 102 since winning last year's Belmont, is the horse everyone has to beat.

Trainers of horses who will have long odds in this race won't be knocking their knees in fear when they get a glimpse of the big horse in the paddock.

"He is the most accomplished horse in the race, that's for sure," said trainer Dale Romans, who will saddle 20-1 shot Prayer for Relief in the Whitney. "But I don't think he lays over the rest of them like a (1995-96 Horse of the Year) Cigar would or any of the top horses in history would."

And this from Ken McPeek, the trainer of Golden Ticket, who is also 20-1: "I don't think there is anything to be hugely intimidated by in here."

Golden Ticket was part of the Travers dead heat in 2012 with Alpha. The 5-year-old lost by a head to Palace Malice in the Gulfstream Park Handicap in Florida in March.

The biggest threat to Palace Malice would appear to be the stretch-running Will Take Charge, last year's 3-year-old champion who won the 2013 Travers. Moreno, who was second in the Travers, is also here and so is Romansh, who was fifth. Palace Malice was fourth in last year's Midsummer Derby.

It is expected that Moreno, trained by the unpredictable Eric Guillot, will be on the lead in this race.

"If Palace Malice is the best horse, so be it," Guillot said. "They are going to have to catch my horse. If I can make $300,000 running second or $150,000 running third, what's wrong with that?"

Palace Malice will be ridden by John Velazquez and, if he wins, would be the first Whitney winner to also have won the Belmont Stakes and the Met Mile.